Spoiler alert: when you die, that’s it. Death, there’s really no coming back from it. There are certain religions and philosophies however that promote the notion that when you die, you come back as someone else, and let’s face it, that’s an attractive selling point so no wonder so many suckers buy into it.

The reality of it of course is that it’s as real as Father Christmas, the Tooth Fairy, or Gordon Ramsey, all made up entities one and all.

Antoine Fuqua’s latest however, puts a sci-fi spin on it, as a select few find themselves laughing in the face of death as they keep coming back for more.

Struggling with the job market is Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg); he’s a decent restaurant manager, but news of his mental health issues - he suffers from schizophrenia - appears to be putting potential employers off.

To keep his mind in check he takes drugs, but not the kind you pick up over the counter. Instead he has to do deals with a drug gang, but when one of these deals goes south, Evan finds himself behind bars.

It’s there he’s approached by a stranger, Bathurst (Chiwetel Ejiofor), although he appears to know Evan, or at least some of the characters he used to be. Bathurst attempts to dig a little deeper into Evan’s mind, in the hope of unlocking his many pasts, before a car crashes through the wall and rescues him.

Behind the wheel is Nora (Sophie Cookson), and she takes Evan back to her group, the Believers, as they inform him of who they are and his part in it. They are a group of people who are reincarnated every time they die, and remember everything they did in their previous lives, including all their skills. She then tells Evan that he’s actually one of them, and has some important information in his head.

They also tell him that there’s another group, the Nihilists, which is where Bathurst comes in, who are fed up with the whole coming back to life thing, and are actually keen in ending life as we know it for everyone on the planet. For this they need the egg, a device that can actually do that. The rub is, they don’t know where it is, but they do know that Evan does, in a previous life at least.

With Bathurst now making Evan his target, the Believers are keen to unlock Evan’s brain and help save humanity, if time is on their side.

It’s difficult to get over the clunky convoluted nature of Fuqua’s film, that attempts to out-head scratch a Christopher Nolan film, by having a narrative that's uncomfortably thick. To his credit though, much of the budget is on the screen, as it certainly looks the part with some impressive art direction and striking set pieces, and its not so subtle nod to the likes of Highlander.

Where it suffers however is with its pseudo religious plot, which almost feels like the kind of brainwashing propaganda the Scientology quacks would put out. And then you have the MacGuffin that is present here by way of an egg; it’s a device that both groups want to get their hands on, but ultimately has little significance in the film, other than being shiny and, well, egg-shaped.

The film isn’t helped by conflict between two parties that is all too vague; the Nihilists want to instigate the end of the world, which is fine, but it’s never really made clear as to why, or how it would really benefit them. And who would be left to see if they did a good job or not?

Sadly nothing about the script is believable, much like reincarnation itself, with the audience feeling much like Wahlberg’s character by not having a clue what’s going on half the time, and other half struggling to care.

Still, it looks sleek and its attempt to have the complex structure of a Nolan film is admirable if so off the mark it’s almost funny. Who knows, maybe in its next life it will actually make it back as a Nolan film, then everyone will be a winner. In this life however, it’s just a not-so-cheap knock-off that is far off from being a cinematic religious experience.